Jill Stein May Be Wrong on The Issues, But She is Right on Her Tactics

In the last month, Green Party candidate Jill Stein has fought the law and, for the most part, the law has won. She was first arrested for attempting to enter the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, charged with disorderly conduct. Since then, she was arrested for bringing provisions to Keystone XL pipeline protestors in Texas, charged with trespassing. This behavior may be too radical for some, but I applaud it.

I don’t plan to vote for Stein. While she has many good ideas, I disagree with many of her economic policies which I fear would only hasten decline. That having been said, her aggressive tactics have evoked police responses that should dually inspire and upset every voter.

Politicians running afoul of the law is nothing new, but the charges usually concern embezzlement or perjury, not protesting. Stein’s arrests do not compare with the police brutality at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, but they represent a similar anti-authoritarianism largely absent from today’s discourse.

Stein may stand for issues I disagree with, but she stands with a resolution I admire. Obama and Romney are comfortable. They have millions of dollars, know all the right people and have an entourage of Escalades at their disposal. Stein doesn’t. But while she may pose no electoral threat, her willingness to showcase her relative powerlessness threatens to reveal the powers that be as overweeningly aggressive.